IX] SILSOE AND LEIGHTON BUZZARD 139 



would have stood the office-work I should never have suc- 

 ceeded as a man of business, for which I am not fitted by 

 nature. I rather think that this particular firm was the last 

 which carried on business in so old-fashioned a way, as the 

 good-will was, I believe, sold some thirty years later, when 

 Mr. Matthews retired. My short experience as a shopboy 

 and watchmaker, and the association with a man of Mr. 

 Matthews's extensive knowledge in certain departments of 

 mechanics and engineering, no doubt helped in the all-round 

 development of my character, although I did not learn any- 

 thing of much practical use in my after-life. 



